Debs was employed as a railroad fireman from his youth in Indiana, became active in his trade union, and then organized the broader-based American Railway Union, which conducted the historic Pullman Strike in 1894. For his leading role in that strike in defiance of a federal court injunction, he served six months in prison and emerged, in his own words, as a โdedicated socialist.โ Putting words into action, he organized the Socialist Party of America and, beginning in 1900, became its perennial candidate for president.
George J. Ziogas